Activities to use children's literature in the EFL classroom

Can it!

Image: An empty tin can,
by Sun Ladder

A story container will soon become a favourite way of book sharing in your classroom. 

To make a story container, students need a clean, empty can with the label removed. Provide your students with a label-size piece of cardboard or construction-paper, some craft sticks, construction-paper scraps, tape, and crayons or markers. Have them decorate the cardboard label with the title, the author, and an illustration from a chosen book. Then have them tape the completed label around the can. Next have students use the construction-paper scraps and craft sticks to create a stick puppet for each important character in the story. To talk about their book, students show their decorated container and talk about each character puppet. After the presentation they store the puppets in the container and display them in the classroom for an exhibit.

Reports on file

These stylish file-folder book reports will tempt your youngsters to read one another's favourite books.

To make a file-folder report, a students writes the title of her/his chosen book on the tab of a coloured file folder. Next, he/she completes a report form with this information about the book: title; author; illustrator; my favourite character; my favourite part of the story; question about the story. At the bottom of their paper, students write a question about the story on several lines provided. Then, they draw a scene from the story on a sheet of drawing paper. Finally they staple their completed form to the left side of the folder and their illustration to the right side. Store the folders in a file box for students to review during free time.

Handy-dandy reports

Give literature a hand with cute book reports. Have each student write the title and author of their book on a hand pattern. Next, on separate squares of white paper, have students illustrate two different characters, an item in the setting, and two objects that were important in the story. Have them cut out the pictures and the hand pattern. Then have them glue one picture to each finger of the hand cutout. Display the completed projects on a bulletin board titled 'Give a big hand to these books'.

It's in the bag

Image: Brown Bag (with staple)
by Jeffrey Beall

Students will enjoy giving book reports when they assume the roles of their favourite characters. Have each students use markers, construction-paper, and thread to decorate a paper lunch bag to resemble a character from a favourite story. To report on her/his book, the student slips the puppet onto her/his hand and speaks about the story from the character's point of view. After the students have given their presentations, staple the puppets to a bulletin board. To complete the display, post a label near each puppet identifying the character and the story it is from.

Pre-reading word search

Stimulate your students' interest in new vocabulary with this pre-reading strategy. Before the class begins reading a new story, provide several minutes of pre-reading time in which students scan the story for interesting or unfamiliar words. After the allotted time, ask students to report their findings. List their responses on a sheet of chart paper labelled with the title and author of the story. Discuss the meaning and pronunciation of each word on the list before having the students read the story. The children will be more familiar with the story's vocabulary, which will increase their comprehension of the reading material. After reading the story, post the word list in your classroom as a handy reference for students to use with other reading and writing assignments.

Story wheels

To begin, ask students to name the beginning, middle and ending events from a given story. List their responses (in the order they occurred in the story) on the blackboard. Then have each student illustrate the events on a story wheel. To make a story wheel, a student uses a pencil and a ruler to divide each of two paper plates into four sections. Students write the title and author of the story in the top right quadrant of one plate. Then they rotate the plate one-quarter turn clockwise,, label the top right quadrant 'beginning', and draw a picture of a corresponding event there. In a similar manner, she/he labels the next quadrant 'middle' and illustrates the problem of the story. Then she/he labels the final quadrant 'ending' and illustrates the ending of the story. To make a wheel cover, they draw a large dot in the centre of the second plate where the four lines intersect. Next students carefully cut away one section of the plate, leaving the dot intact. Then, they erase the pencil marks remaining on the plate and personalise it as desired. Then, using a brad, they attack the wheel cover atop the wheel. To use the story wheel, the students turns her/his wheels so that the second event is showing. She/he tells what happened before and after the second event. To check her/his answer, she/he turns the wheel forward or backward to reveal the other events. Continue having students turn their wheels to a determined event and having them tell what happened before and after the event shown.

Make friends with a book

Help your students select the best in literature by providing them with some references. You will select short-story books, beginning chapter books, a selection of stories to read aloud to your students and a list of favourite authors. Your class is sure to find several favourites among these teacher-recommended titles.

Life-size library figures

Invite your youngsters to enter the world of books by enlarging library-book characters onto a poster board. Colour, cut out, and laminate each figure. Display the characters in your classroom or in the hallway. Then add conversation bubbles encouraging students to read.

All aboard!

Image: locotoy, by jean victor balin

Mount a cardboard engine on a classroom wall. Provide each student with several coloured copies of a boxcar pattern to take home. Each time the student reads a book at home, have her/him complete the information on the boxcar, cut it out, and return it to school. Mount the boxcars on the wall to create a train. As the train grows throughout the year, so will your students' reading abilities.

The growing caterpillar

Image: pipe cleaners, by essie

Motivate students to read independently by challenging them to achieve a group reading goal. To create this display, cut a supply of large cardboard circles. Add pom-pom eyes, a nice mouth and pipe-cleaner antennae to one circle to resemble a caterpillar's head. Mount the caterpillar's head on a classroom wall. Tell students that for every book a student read, a segment will be added to the caterpillar. The student must write her/his name, the author's name, and the title of the book on a cardboard circle, then have a teacher or parent initial the circle to indicate that she/he told them about the book. Reward the students with a special party in their honour upon completion of their goal. Your students will be amazed at how fast the bookworm grows.

"Hit the board"

We do this activity to practise with new vocabulary. As it's fun and motivating, it enhances the acquisition of new items without the students being aware of it.

Before doing this activity, you need to introduce the new vocabulary with the help of a presentation if you are provided with a digital board, or just with flashcards or realia.

To carry out this game you need two fly swatters and flashcards with the items you previously introduced.

Stick the flashcards on the blackboard and divide the class in two groups. Each team must form a line in front of the blackboard. Give a fly swatter to the first student of each group and call out an item of vocabulary. The students that carry the fly swatter must go to the blackboard and hit the correct flashcard with the fly swatter.

You can choose if you want to score points to do the game as a sort of competition or not, depending on the interests and motivation of your students.

Image: Fly swatter, by Melissa Eder

Teaching listening comprehension

Pre-listening phase

During this essential phase of the listening process, teachers prepare students for what they will hear and what they are expected to do. First, the teacher needs to help pupils bring to consciousness their knowledge of the topic, the organisation of the information in the text, and any relevant cultural information. Second, a purpose for listening needs to be established so that learners know the specific information they need to listen for and the degree of detail needed. This way when learners use all the available information, they can make predictions to anticipate what they might hear. Pre-listening activities can help students make decisions about what to listen for and, then, to focus attention on meaning while listening. Activities include:

• Predicting content from the title, pictures, drawings...
• Describing context.
• Revivsing characters, story so far, etc.
• Reading through the two or three comprehension questions in advance.
• A short reading text on a similar topic as preparation for listening.
• Working out your opinion on a topic.
• Pre-teaching vocabulary through various means.
• Giving clear instructions and establishing goals.
• Students guess what they have to do.
• Children tell the teacher the instructions after reading them.

Image: Listen, by Ky

While-listening phase

During the listening activity itself, students continue to monitor their comprehension and make decisions about strategy use. Teacher intervention during this phase is virtually impossible, because of the ephemeral nature of listening. Periodic practice in decision-making skills and strategy use can sharpen inferencing skills and help students to monitor more effectively. 

Students need to evaluate the results of decisions made during a listening task. The teacher can encourage self-evaluation and reflection by asking students to assess the effectiveness of strategies used. Group or class discussions on the approach taken by different students can also stimulate reflection and worthwhile evaluation. Students are encouraged to share individual routes leading to success, such as how someone guessed (inference) the meaning of a certain word, or how someone modified a particular strategy. An emphasis on listening comprehension, as well as the application of listening strategies, will help students to capitalise on the language input they receive, and to achieve greater success in language learning. Learning strategies are useful tools for students because they open up more reliable and less frustrating routes to language learning success.

In this phase, the teacher asks pupils to focus on tasks carried out during or after listening that directly require comprehension of the spoken material. Extensive listening/global comprehension (the practice that requires the listener to understand the general content) involves activities such as the following:

• Putting pictures in a correct sequence.
• Following directions on a map.
• Checking off items in a photograph.
• Information transfer (completing a grid, timetable, or chart of information).
• Carrying out orders.
• Matching.
• Cutting out.
• Chanting.
• Counting.
• Singing along.
• Colouring.
• Circling.
• Repeating.
• Discriminating between sounds.
• Listening for specific information.
• Listening to construct the context.
• Listening for the main idea.
• Listening to confirm expectations.
• Recognising functions.
• Problem-solving activities.
• Listening to promote learning strategies.
• Pronunciation practice.
• Pointing.

As proficiency develops, tasks will gradually become more language-based:

• Answering true/false or multiple-choice questions.
• Predicting what comes next.
• Inferring opinions across a whole text.
• Deducing meaning from context.
• Inferring opinion and attitude.

Post-listening phase

The post-listening stage is an opportunity for many kinds of follow-up work: thematic, lexical, grammatical, skills, developmental and so on. Possible activities include:

• Using notes made while listening to write a summary.
• Reading a related text.
• Doing a role-play.
• Writing on the same topic.
• Studying new grammatical structures.
• Practising pronunciation.
• Doing a project.
• Speaking practice.
• Playing a game.
• Singing a song.
• Making something (crafts).

Conclusion

Effective teaching involves (Rost, 2001):

• Careful selection of input sources, that is, tasks that are appropriately authentic, interesting, varied and challenging.
• Creative design of tasks, i.e. well-structured, with opportunities for pupils to activate their own knowledge and experience and to monitor what they are doing.
• Assistance to help pupils enact effective listening strategies.
• Integration of listening with other listening purposes, i.e. with appropriate links to speaking, reading and writing.

Image: Success, by zaraki.kenpachi

Do you need to plan if you have a course book?

Image by Tatiana T

Course books provide a variety of material in a structured way and can be a great benefit for the teacher and the student. However, having a course book does not reduce the need for planning.

Here are some advantages and disadvantages of using a course book:

Advantages

• A course book gives the students a sense of security. As the class moves through it, the students can see the progress they are making and what they have achieved.
• Course books are good resources for teachers, providing material and ideas which saves time when planning
• A good course book can give a structure for a series of lessons, providing continuity and consistency for the class. There is usually a logical progression of language items including built-in revision as well as a good balance of skills work, with listening, reading and writing practice as well as activities for speaking.
• Most course books are written by experienced teachers of English. That knowledge and experience is invaluable, particularly for inexperienced teachers.

Disadvantages

• The course book may not be suitable for your particular class - perhaps it is not appropriate for your age group, nationality or culture. For example, the topics may be too adult or childish.
• Many course books are very predictable. They follow the same pattern unit after unit. This can become boring for both the students and the teacher if the book is followed too strictly.
• Course books can encourage teachers to be less creative and imaginative - preferring to use ideas in the book rather than their own.

Course books are, without doubt, a very useful aid for teachers. However it is often more productive to try and adapt and supplement the material in the book to suit your particular class. If you do use a course book, try not to follow the same routine each lesson - vary the order of the activities and remember that it isn't always necessary to do every exercise to achieve your aim.

A course book can certainly help you to plan, but it cannot replace your own ideas for what you want to achieve with your class.

Source: Robertson, C & Acklam, R: Action Plan for Teachers, a guide to teaching English, BBC World Service, 2000

Teaching with songs

As every English teacher know, songs are a great resource for language teaching. They help retain words and they are a good way for practising pronunciation, so they should be included in every English lesson plan.

There are lots of traditional and new songs that we can use in class, but a few years ago I discovered a very interesting web page with lots of free songs and videos you can use with your students. Although some of them may seem a bit... too simple, I decided to try them out with my students and they immediately loved them! This page I'm talking about is Dream English Kids Songs, and there you can find songs and videos about many topics.

For the topic of classroom objects (Unit 1 from my programming), I like this one:

I recommend you to visit the web page and take a look!

Writing race

The objective of this activity is to practise spelling and memory. It can be done individually or in groups.

Stick four pieces of paper with the written form of the vocabulary or with the structures of the lesson, well spaced around the classroom. The students go to the words and mentally retain the spelling of the first word or sentence. They return to their seat and write out the word or sentence from memory. They continue until they have written down all the words.

Group version:

Divide the class into small groups. One of the students of each group will be the 'runner', who will go to the piece of paper, read and retain the spelling of the first word or sentence, will return to his or her seat and tell the word or sentence to his/her mates for them to write it down. The role of the 'runner' must change among the members of the group, as the objective of the activity is for all the students to practise spelling and memory.

Source: www.teachingenglishgames.com

Pass the ball!

This is a very simple activity to introduce new functions (structures) and I can say that children love it!

Divide the class into groups of 5 or 6 students and give each group a tennis ball. Take one of the balls and pass it to one student saying the target structure, for example What's your name? Have the student answer My name is (Lucas) and tell him to pass the ball and ask the question to another student, and so on.

Have all the groups do the same at a time until all the students have asked and answered two or three times.

Tennis ball, by Tim Greenfield

Interactive activities

Para afianzar la adquisición del nuevo vocabulario y practicar nuevas estructuras y gramática, he creado una serie de actividades interactivas con Educaplay, las cuales podéis encontrar en la página "Interactive activities" de este blog. Conforme el tiempo me lo permita iré añadiendo más tipos de actividades, tales como sopas de letras, textos para completar, diálogos, cuestionarios, relacionar columnas, juegos de memoria, etc. Aquí os dejo un ejemplo de una actividad de diálogo, en la que los alumnos pueden escuchar las frases y repetirlas, para así practicar la pronunciación:

Personal details

School and classroom objects

Aquí tenéis unos vídeos para presentar y/o practicar el vocabulario referente a la escuela (School) y a los objectos del aula (Classroom objects):

School: classroom, playground, computers room, music classroom, library, gym.

Classroom objects: pencil, pen, rubber, ruler, sharpener, paper, book, desk, blackboard.

En la página "Presentations" de este blog podéis encontrar la versión presentación con diapositivas de estos vídeos, si así lo preferís.

'The traffic light'

Image: 'Traffic light', by Anonimous

Más que una actividad, "the traffic light" se utiliza para explicar las reglas de la clase de Inglés, por tanto, es conveniente realizarla el primer día del curso escolar. Para ello, deberás fabricar tu propio semáforo con cartulina. Más abajo os pongo un vídeo en el que podéis ver cómo hacerlo. También podéis entrar en la página vídeos, donde accederéis a mi canal de YouTube, en el cual iré publicando vídeos con actividades y más cosas.

Básicamente, se trata de explicar a los niños y niñas en qué momento pueden o no hablar. Cogemos el semáforo de cartulina, ponemos el círculo rojo y les explicamos: "When the traffic light is RED you cannot speak at all". Luego ponemos el naranja y les decimos: "When it's ORANGE you can only speak when you're asked, and you have to listen to your classmates while they're speaking". Por último ponemos el círculo verde y explicamos: "When the traffic light is GREEN means that you can speak in group activities but without making too much noise".

Es importante explicar primero las cosas en Inglés para así trabajar la comprensión oral, siempre ayudándonos del lenguaje corporal para ayudarles a entender. Luego les haremos preguntas del tipo "Can you speak when the traffic light is red?" para comprobar su grado de comprensión y hacerles participar y expresarse.

A continuación volveremos a explicarlo todo en castellano para asegurarnos de que todos los alumnos lo entiendan perfectamente y comenzaremos a usar "the traffic light" ya en la siguiente actividad.

Por último, establecemos las "multas" para quien se salte el semáforo en rojo o en ámbar, lo cual puede ser hacer una ficha de deberes para casa, copiar vocabulario, o lo que mejor nos parezca.